Tales of a Scorched Earth: The Eagle has landed

Friday, February 9, 2007

The Eagle has landed

Yes... we're finally here. In India that is.

We arrived, the day before yesterday now and it's taken this long for me to finally making a post.

So what have we been doing then? Well... other than being hosts to countless mozzys (damn those pesky beasties) we've been out and about Mumbai experiencing what the city has to offer.

We have kindly been accommodated by one of Sarah's uncles in the military defense colony on the southern most tip of Mumbai in an area called Colaba... Uncle Bulbul being a retired army officer he has a very nice home in the heart of the army area of the def col - so bearing this in mind we've had to pass through military checkpoints on a number of occasions, going in & out of the area - each time being stopped by stern looking chaps in cool camo - and cross examined and what have you to determine if we are who we say we are and aren't UK spooks sent over by Tony Blair to do some undercover sabotage... :S - I think they recognise us now as they let us through earlier with no questions asked.

It's breakfast time now and we've just got back from a very early expedition to the local docks to pick up some prawns for lunch/dinner... sounds fairly innocuous doesn't it? - well the reality of it was far more pungent than one would anticipate - and talk about busy...! the sun had only just risen when we arrived and it was already heaving with locals... pushing, shoving, shouting, carrying who knows what species of subaqua origin - quite a scene... nevertheless we made it in * out alive, toes intact, somewhat more dirtier than we went in... and with our prize of 1kg of fresh Arabian sea prawns for the princely sum of rs250 (rupees) - about 2quid.

We're showered and less smelly now - the pong of the docks is insidious and seems to pervade all our clothing - needless to say they will be cleaned and pressed ready for our trip south...

Took a trip on a boat yesterday out into Mumbai harbour... over to an island in the middle of the gulf of water between Mumbai and the continental mainland of India... good trip out - Simon's first real day experiencing the Indian hubbub - he's starting to relax into things now - which is good. This island had a load of caves that had been cut and carved centuries ago with images of Shiva andParvati and Brahma and what not... usual fayre - but still fascinatingly impressive.

Boat back and home for tea - well, out for tea actually, Uncle Bulbul and Aunty Meena kindly took us out to dinner to the Mumbai cricket club... all very swish...

anyway... breakfast is calling... plus a mid morning nap is on the cards... take it easy people.

enjoy the snow!

:)
--

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Hey there !
glad you finally made it.
You have missed a nice snow fall here in the midlands.
Remember, don't go out without your cap.; February 9, 2007 at 11:41 AM

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RTW Reading Club 2007 -

1. Andrew Collins - "Where did it all go right - Growing up in the 70's" - Biographic story of growing up in a 70's provincial town england (northampton as it happens), I enjoyed it - Sarah discarded it after a few pages... It's a boy thing maybe, talking about Action Men, Nutty Bars, Walnut Whips, Beezer, Dandy, Punk Rock and the Poseidon Adventure - As my mum always used to say "You know you're getting old when you start to reminisce" and this book (for me anyway) certainly pushed those buttons. 2. Louis de Berniers - "Senior Vivo and the Coca Lord" - Third in the trilogy set in a fictitious South American Country. Superb book. I loved the first one, didn't quite manage to finish the second but it enjoyed it anyway and this one rounds of the series nicely. Follows the progress of a College Lecturer (Senior Vivo) who manages to stir the wrath of one of the biggest cocaine barons in South America by just writing letters to a newspaper... It manages to be humorous all the way through whilst simultaneously dealing with gangster violence, retribution and so on... Funny, Sad, Whimsical, Lovely, Horrific, Magical are all words suited to describe this book. If you haven't read it... then read the others first - you won't regret it. 3. Gregory David Roberts - "Shantaram" - Just over Halfway and thanks to Andy (west') for the tip... excellent read so far... perfect location to read it too... particularly as it's set in Bombay and mentions all the places we've seen and been to... with the exception of the Prison... we didn't go there, thankfully. I'll be sad to finish it. Apparently it's been turned into a film... possibly with Johnny Depp (Sarah will be pleased) Finished it now and I have to say it was really rather good... made me laugh, made me cry and made my think too... excellent holiday read - especially whilst in India. 4. PADI - Adventure diver - yeah... not exactly the most thrilling of books but necessary to pass the advanced diving course... 12 different fields of diving to choose from, pick 5, learn them, do the exams, do the practicles... and hey presto you're advanced... all seems a little too easy. But seriously folks, must reading if you want to go deep. 5. Stephen Hawkings universe - This is brain expanding stuff - not that I'm willing to say I understand it all, but certainly puts a different perspective on things. Dealing with everything from relativity, Black holes, Mini Black holes, Event Horizons, Singularities, Exploding Black holes, Bubble Universe Theories, Quantum mechanics, quarks, neutrinos, and all those other iddy biddy particle things... oh and a bit on God too! Downside being is that it's 20 years old now and more than likely to be outdated in current thinking... or maybe not. If you like having your brain twisted inside out then this is the one for you. Otherwise steer well clear. 6. Jung Chang "Wild Swans" - Historical, thought provoking account of the traumatic upheaval of China throughout the 20th century. Seen through the eyes of one family across 3 generations of it's women; the book is a stunning insight into a country in crisis - the ridiculousness of the political crusade of Chairman Mao and the struggle the society had with him and each other leading ultimately to a total breakdown of millennial old social structures, traditions and values and on to a state sponsored anarchic regime. An insight into a Social Suicide which should be a lesson for us all. It was certainly an eye opener. 7. David Mitchell "Black Swan Green" - Sentimental and often nostalgic story of a young boy heading into those awkward teenage years, set in a small village to the Malvern Hills at the start of the 80's... sounds familiar? Well, seeing that he credits Andrew Collins in his list at the back suggest he may have got some influence from the first book I read from this trip... difference being this is a novel, not reality - however, Sarah hated this and I sort of enjoyed it... probably for the same reasons I liked growing up in the 70's - the nostalgia - but Sarah loathed what she referred to as constant "Era dropping" - she may have a point - but maybe she's just a little too young to remember? :P 8. Patrick Suskind "Perfume" - Subtitled "The Story of a Murderer", may give away the contents of this aromatic read. I really enjoyed this, very flowery, pungent language as befitting a book about smells. Great story, if perhaps a little far fetched at some points - fatalistic to the extreme and quite disturbing too. I'd be interested to see how they did it as a movie... 9. David Mitchell "Number 9 Dream" - ooh how bizarre, my ninth book is called number 9 dream.. how peculiar? This is one of David attempts at being clever, whilst enjoyable to a point it ultimately fails to deliver. Which was a shame as I enjoyed reading it but felt after a while it got a little lost, with a but too many sub plots that became a little self indulgent... I can certainly see where he was going with this, but I feel "Cloud Atlas" was more accomplished. 10. "The Damage Done" - I forget who wrote this, but essentially it's a true story about an Ozzy guy who gets caught running class A drugs to and from Thailand to Oz and suffers a great deal whilst in various penal establishments in Thailand. Sold to the many young and naive backpackers in Thailand as a warning perhaps... which is bizarre because it highlights in extreme detail the atrocious conditions prisoners are kept in. Certainly a showcase perhaps for human rights campaigners... 11. DBP Pierre "Vernon God Little" - A really good read, a well written modern satirical take on the US legal system and TV media and how they behave during a tragedy involving school kids and guns... similar in essence to the topics dealt with in Natural Born Killers but without the blood and random violence. Thumbs Up. 12. Philip Reeve "Mortal Engines" - Award winning teenage fiction. First part in a series of four books. Set x-many years into the future after man nearly destroyed itself in some big war that left the world ravaged... yadda yadda yadda... yeah, it's the same old derivative backstory but then it IS kids fiction so we can excuse that... it's what comes next that's great imaginative stuff - humanity broken down into a pot rivetted collection of nomadic steam powered cities that have an almost animalistic life in themselves using the "Municipal Darwinism" principle - lol - quality! Anyway... falling firmly between the potter books and the dark material trilogy (in terms of writing style) a must read for those who like that sort of thing... oh... and the cover arts nice too... :) 13. James Joyce "Dubliners" - Not quite finished this yet but I'm getting there... bit of a departure from 21st century teen fiction I know - but, well you've gotta stretch yourself - I was expecting to be flummoxed by this TBH and whilst occasionally the language, rhythm and style does lose me, on the whole it's a really nice read... kind of like, Van Morrison reading Alan Bennett to Father Ted. "Hoy dare... Luk Father! therez a cracker under your sofa... so there is. Would ye loik a cup o tea? go awn...!" ... I'm sure Joyce is rolling in his grave... and no... I haven't got Ulysses lined up for me 14th choice...

Tales of a Scorched Earth

Friday, February 9, 2007

The Eagle has landed

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RTW Reading Club 2007 -

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